iPhone is seven years old today

Seven years ago, Steve Jobs whipped it out in front of a large group of people and was applauded as a god. The iPhone was a touch screen smart-phone which had an Apple badge on it.

Since then the smartphone industry has taken off and almost everyone in the known world has one. The release of the iPhone was the beginning of the mobile revolution which lead to Apple resurrecting an idea that Microsoft could never make fly – the tablet.

But while Apple fanboys are patting themselves on the back that Steve Jobs changed the world, actually it is a moot point if he did anything. While Apple made a fortune out of the iPhone, it was more the copycat Android machines which bought the smartphone revolution to everyone. Apple gear was, and still is, the pricey end of the market.

Apple did not really create anything new with the iPhone or the iPad, just marketed existing technology better. But to be fair it did it very well. What is also interesting is that in seven years, Apple has more or less sat on its hands. The iPhone of today is still more or less the same thing that it was. Sure, there have been tweaks but there has been no radical shift in the technology. Any innovation which has come to the gizmo has come from outside sources.

The way things are being played is that there is a very real danger that someone will come up with something radically different that will gut the smartphone market overnight. After seven years someone will have to have an itch.